Last Stand
by Arc of Aether
Summary: A special short story for a good friend.


_**Last Stand**_

Beaten, bruised and bloodied, Erwin Smith stood face to face with an abnormal unlike any he had seen before.

Behind Erwin lay the unconscious body of Corporal Levi, fighting for his life as hard as Erwin was trying to save theirs.

Before him, the abnormal stood in the light of the setting sun, like the shadow of death ready to swallow him whole.

He was running out of gas for his 3D maneuver gear, running out of blades and he could tell by the way the fight had been going that his body was running out of time too.

He had been called handsome more than once before, but you certainly wouldn't be able to tell right now.

But behind the cuts, bruises, dirt and blood, a fierce determination shined within his eyes.

Until the sun had set and the titans fell inactive, he would not give up a single inch of the area near Levi.

And a single titan, no matter how abnormal, wasn't going to stop him from saving at least that one life that mattered.

Here he was, in front of the broken body of what most would call the fiercest soldier, facing down a titan even Levi couldn't match, with just a few blades and barely enough gas left on an open field with the titan being the only thing large enough to latch on to being the titan itself.

The blades he was holding were already broken from fending off the titan's initial attempt to seize both of them.

As its legs started to regenerate, Erwin discarded the broken blades for fresh new ones, the only two remaining in his arsenal.

He spat a bit of blood out as the titan rose back up to its feet.

Before it could fully move again, Erwin launched himself at him with his 3D maneuver gear.

The swing of the titan's fist came half-expected, half-unexpected. Erwin had little regard for his own body at this point, a few more broken bones wouldn't matter, but he had to stay alive.

The force of the blow even when it swung underneath him was enough to change Erwin's general direction.

It didn't matter, Erwin told himself.

Releasing the hold on the titan's chest, he launched himself up across his arm, blades tearing through the thick muscles of the titan until Erwin reached his shoulder and severed the last muscle, making the arm fall limp beside the titan.

The abnormal's regenerative powers would have it fixed in minutes, but the next punch came in seconds, though it would be more precise to be a movement akin to swatting a fly out of the air.

Erwin's eyes glanced at the nape of the titans neck as the swatting hand flung him out of the way, crushing what few ribs that remained unbroken.

However, Erwin's will remained unwavering and even stumbling through the air, he latched himself on to the front of the abnormal's neck and carved deep into the muscular skin of its chest with both blades.

The moment he touched the ground, he spun around and leaped away, narrowly dodging the titan's fist as it came crushing down.

The tremor shook Levi's unconscious body and made him spit up a bit of blood. The cold determination in Erwin's eyes flared briefly with anger and he directed that anger directly at the titan.

He had to keep moving, as stopping would mean certain death, but his maneuver gear was starting to slow down.

One, maybe two more reel ins left, and that would be it. Three if he was lucky, but today had proven that he had everything but good luck.

It hardly stopped him so far, though, and wouldn't stop him from fighting now. The grapple hooks latched into the titan's side as Erwin flew through the air and gained as much momentum as he could humanly get.

Whirling around to the titan's back, he reeled himself in and released the hook, sending him flying straight up to the nape of the titan's neck.

Soaring up into the sky, Erwin remembered for a brief moment that Levi loved using a similar technique.

Then the nape of the neck came into view and every muscle in Erwin's body tensed to deliver the finishing blow.

However, when the blades made contact with the abnormal's weakspot, the blades broke at their base and were send flying up just like Erwin.

He felt death inch closer, but he wasn't ready to be consumed by the grave just yet.

Fear of death was pushed aside by sheer determination, desperation and part madness.

After all, what was one more injury on his body if it meant he could push death away?

One of his hands reached out to the broken blade flying up with him and clutched tightly on to it, enough to make a deep cut in his hands.

The ascend into the air seemed to last forever, but when he started falling back down, it was only an instant before he felt like he was soaring faster than his 3D maneuver gear would ever allow.

Like lightning, he struck the abnormal's nape with the blade, cutting all the way across it until the blade flung out of his hands.

He didn't aim his final grapple hook shot, but when he was this close to the titan, he didn't need to.

As the abnormal let out a final painful gasp, Erwin slowed his descend with the last remaining gas he had in his maneuver gear.

The fatigue hit him when his feet and the titan's face hit the soil, a meter or so away from Levi.

The sun had finally set as he fell forward, all energy leaving his body.

Two arms managed to catch him.

"You're a mess, you fucking show-off. Clean yourself up..."

A smirk formed on the corners of Erwin Smith's mouth as he lost consciousness, knowing his mission had been a success.


End file.
